Review- Allegedly

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say.

Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home.

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?

Some children are just born bad, plain and simple.

After reading and loving Let Me Hear a Rhyme, I decided to make my way through Tiffany D. Jackson’s backlist starting with Allegedly. Now I only need to read Monday’s Not Coming before Grown comes out on Tuesday…

Allegedly is one of those most fast-paced novels I have read this year, and it was exactly what I needed. I felt a reading slump coming on, and this book pulled me right out of it. The way the story is written keeps you turning the pages and you find yourself trying to sort the facts from the fiction. The way that Jackson was able to weave the story together was quite ingenious. The newspaper clippings and articles from websites like People Magazine and The New York Times help to add some realism to the story. It is shocking to think that this is Jackson’s debut!

It is such a frustrating story in the best way possible. Just when you think you have a handle on where everything is going, something happens that makes you realize just how wrong you are. Mary will go down as one of the most memorable characters that I have ever read, as will her mother.

While Allegedly is riveting and twisty, it also has a lot to say about the justice system, racism, sexism, and mental health. I went into the book expecting a thriller, but what I got was something so much more.

I cannot say much about the ending without spoilers, but I know that it is polarizing. I personally loved it and thought it was brilliantly executed, but I can understand why others would be unsatisfied. It is an ending that I had to sit with for a few days in order to work out my true feelings. Just know that you might end up with more questions than answers, but the journey itself is worth it.

I knew from reading Let Me Hear a Rhyme that Jackson would become an autobuy author for me, but Allegedly has solidified that! I am thrilled that a new Tiffany D. Jackson comes into the world on Tuesday and it seems as though it has been confirmed that we will be getting two more books in the future.

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